Should Employers Keep Preparing
for the COVID-19 ETS?
With another ruling against the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine-or-testing directive on Nov. 12 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)'s suspending implementation of the emergency temporary standard (ETS) to fight COVID-19 in the workplace, employers are wondering whether they should keep preparing to comply with the directive. Many legal experts recommend that employers prepare to follow the requirements of the ETS while litigation continues. However, some employers are taking a wait-and-see approach.
"Employers do not want to find themselves in a position where they are not ready if the ETS survives," said Ashley Cuttino, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Greenville, S.C.
Corbin Carter, an attorney with Mintz in New York City, said, "The Supreme Court may ultimately weigh in. But employers likely cannot await a court ruling on the new rule's fate before properly engaging in the appropriate tasks—convening stakeholders, reviewing the relevant rules, assessing options—given the rule's tight timeline."
